The present invention relates to wire bonding inspection equipment, and particularly to wire bonding inspection equipment which automatically inspects the state of wire bonding of each semiconductor device after a wire bonding step for such a semiconductor device has been performed.
Semiconductor devices, such as an integrated circuit chip, are wire bonded to a surrounding member such as a lead frame. After a judgement as to whether or not the wire bonding is acceptable, the semiconductor devices are sealed with a sealing material. Heretofore, inspection of the wire bonding conducted by visual observation. Only defective wires were removed, and the removed wire portions were restored again by wire bonding. Nonrestorable semiconductors are destroyed by manually breaking all the bonding wires thereof and are detected in a subsequent functional test step for removal.
It is, however, preferable to break all the wires as nonrestorable wires when any defect is found in at least part of the many wires which are wire bonded since there is a relatively high possibility of wires of restored semiconductor devices being separated during use after shipment.
In the conventional inspection step, wires are manually broken, and hence the inspection takes a great deal of time, and moreover workers are liable to mistake defective articles for non-defective articles and non-defective ones as defective ones. It is not possible to distinguish defective articles based on the appearance thereof when semiconductor devices are sealed with a sealing material after wires are broken. Thus, it is not possible to distinguish between non-defective articles and defective articles without any functional test. Furthermore, in the case where many semiconductor devices are wire bonded to a lead frame, vibration and breaking of wires of a defective semiconductor device adversely affects the wire bonding of adjacent non-defective semiconductor devices, and wires of non-defective semiconductor devices are liable to be broken.